Windswept Brewing Co in Lossiemouth is a brewery I’ve tried on just a few occasions, but was never really that blown away — until now.
Since I started up my weekly beer column in September, I’ve tried loads of incredible beers from breweries big and small all across Scotland, but these are genuinely some of the best I’ve had so far.
Founded by former RAF Pilots Al Read and Nigel Tiddy, the Lossie brewery has a tagline on its bottles of “best when you’ve earned it”.
What Windswept has earned from me is a newfound appreciation for how great they are at making beer.
Plus, it’s making me feel a tad insecure — how can these guys have the skills to be both RAF pilots AND brew stuff this good?
Here’s my review of three of their beers, a Glen Moray whisky cask-aged dark ale, and two very vibrant and varied IPAs.
Beer 1: APA, Windswept Brewing Co
- 5%
- £2.40 a 330ml bottle from the website
- Windswept Brewing Co, Lossiemouth
- Style: American Pale Ale
Last year I went on holiday to America, to the great beer state of Oregon in fact, and tried a fair few of their pale ales.
Not one of them was as good as this American Pale brewed across the globe in Lossie.
Malty, crystal clear (when poured carefully to exclude the harmless sediment at the bottom), and super refreshing, it’s definitely one of the best examples of this style of beer I’ve had.
The description from Windswept says it’s got a “tangy grapefruit finish”, but in my opinion the flavour it’s most reminiscent of is those Lotus biscoff biscuits.
And at £2.40 a pop, it goes down well in the wallet department too.
Rating: 4.5/5
Beer 2: Tornado Single Hop Citra IPA, Windswept Brewing Co
- 6,7%
- £2.90 a 330ml bottle on the website
- Windswept Brewing Co, Lossiemouth
- Style: Single hop IPA
Tornado from Windswept pours EXTREMELY lively, with a foaming head on it that a glass of Duval would be jealous of that sticks around for the whole drink.
It tastes herbaceous, dry, crisp, and would be the perfect accompaniment to seafood in place of a glass of white wine.
Compared to the APA, it’s not quite as good in my opinion, but an incredible beer nonetheless.
Rating: 4/5
Beer 3: The Wolf of Glen Moray, Windswept Brewing Co
- 9.2%
- £6.95 a 330ml bottle on the website
- Windswept Brewing Co, Lossiemouth
- Style: Cask-aged dark ale
When you get a beer that comes in its own skinny wee cardboard tube thing usually more suited for packaging spirits, you know you’re in for a treat.
But what a treat this was.
Many whisky cask-aged beers don’t really taste of much of the original spirit the brewer is trying to infuse it with the flavour of, but most of them are harsh, bitter stouts, that overwhelm the delicate spirit tastes.
But here, Windswept used a strong, sweet dark ale as their beer to age inside Glen Moray whisky casks.
The result is something that’s got the warming heat of the boozy 9.2% beer, with an almost sweet and sour, balsamic vinegar-y flavour of the cask ageing.
The closest beer I could compare it to would be Belgian dark ales like Rodenbach, which is also barrel-aged.
Perhaps the best thing about it is, despite its fancy packaging and even a seal over the bottlecap, is it doesn’t break the bank either.
Lots of cask-aged stuff from breweries seem to think they can get away with charging as much as they want for a “premium” product that sometimes doesn’t even taste that good, but not only is this exceptional, it’s a very reasonable £6.95 a bottle.
Rarely do I find super strong, fancy-pants beers are ones I’ll ever try twice, but I’m definitely picking up another one or two of these to keep for very special occasions.
Rating: 5/5
Kieran is a former craft beer barman and publishes his beer column every Tuesday online. You can also read his column in the P&J’s Food and Drink magazine, which you can find inside your Press and Journal newspaper every Saturday.
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